Margin on speaker sales by high end dealer

40% profit margin may seem like a lot, but it's not.  There are so many costs to run a proper business, not to mention the state and federal taxes the business must pay.  Overhead, in total, consumes a very high percentage of the profit that a business makes.  Consumers only see what is up front, such as the employee they interface with.  That is only the beginning of the cost of operations.  Of course, a lot depends on the total sales volume that a dealership accomplishes over the business year.  Smaller dealers will have fewer employees and larger dealers will have more.  The list of business operating costs goes on and on.  On average, a dealer of this industry needs to make about 45% annual gross margin in order to keep the business running and take home a respectable paycheck for him/herself.  Speakers at 45%, electronics at 40%, cables and accessories typically at 55% to 60%.  Most dealers nowadays are very willing to negotiate a discount of around 10% +-  That is a great service to their customer and leaves the dealer with a respectable profit, providing they do sell enough units to keep the business successful.  The fewer the unit sales the more difficult it becomes for that dealer to provide such a discount and remain in business.  Keep that in mind when you do business with a smaller dealer.

three_easy_payments and also paradisecom are both exemplifying exactly what I outlined, above.  We are on the same page.
emergingsoul, however, seems to have a view of business whereby the consumer would only be purchasing directly from the manufacture.  He doesn't state it that way, but his ideology of how business should operate, regarding profit margins, leaves only the "Direct to Consumer" business model as an option.  I imagine he would then complain they should be selling the items at a lower price since they have cut out the middle man.  An endless cycle of simply not understanding any business models at all, and that he (and all consumers, I guess) should basically be able to purchase products with little to no profit in play for the manufacture and/or the retail process to flourish.  An utter lack of understanding of business.

Upscale Audio carries many brands.  They are the US Distributor for Prima Luna and maybe one other, that I am not certain of.  The majority of the brands they carry are the same as with any other quality audio retailer.  I have known the owner for over 40 years and he is an upstanding guy and runs a wonderful business, catering to his customers very well.  I'm not quite sure what the issue is with the McIntosh unit cited above, having a dealer cost of $6K and a selling price of $21K.  Something is odd about that.  Trust, the margin for most electronics is about 40% and is not 3 to 6 times markup from cost.  A $10K retail item has a dealer cost of about $6K.
I worked in the consumer electronics industry for over 40 years, both home and car audio electronics of high end brands.  I managed the Western States of sales teams and for total sales & distribution.  I engaged with about 250 independent retailers and over 400 outlets, in total.  Not bragging, but I know this industry well.  High quality electronics have a profit margin from a low of 35% to a high of 45%.  Speakers have a profit margin from a low of 40% to a high of 55%.  There are typically backside business program benefits that range from 3% to as high as 10% but on most of the high cost electronics and speakers the average is around 4% to 5%.  And that is only if you are doing some substantial business volume.  The small retailers quite often do not see any backside program benefits.
This notion of exorbitantly high profit margins is simply incorrect.
Support your local independent retailer as often as possible.  If you can't because where you live there are no brick & mortar retailers then seek out any of the manufacture authorized e-commerce retailers.  The playing field is fairly level for all of these retailers and the vast majority of them are honest and upstanding business people.